Bloviations

Today’s Jacksonville Daily News, serves up an article and an editorial about the rising skyrocketing fuel prices.

In the article “Fueling motorists’ frustrations“, writer Jeff Golden (a new JDNewser? He’s not on the staff page…) spoke with two highly frustrated Jacksonvillians about the cost of fuel in Onslow County. Ms. Cheryl Uppington complains that filling up her Mazda 6 is pricey ($45 for a tank of gasoline!) and Mr. Scott Fuschino won’t reveal the investment in fuel for his Toyota Tacoma. He does say…

I might not be able to afford it if it gets much worse.

I’m curious, how much worse must it get before Mr. Fuschino decides that there are other ways to make his ten-mile trip to work?

Perhaps, if Mr. Golden had added some alternatives to single occupant traveling, Mr. Fuschino and Ms. Uppington would be able to reduce their fuel bills.

The Jacksonville Transit system (it’s a PDF) is one such alternative. Bicycling is another. Neither received mention in the article. Neither did car-pooling or anything other travel advice.

The article also didn’t mention that the hopefully soon-to-be-proposed Jacksonville Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan will be submitted to the Jacksonville City Council by the Jacksonville Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization will make the Jacksonville a much safer place for traveling by bicycling or feet.

Only the frustrations of two residents of Jacksonville, probably picked off at the same gas station, probably within 10 minutes of each other.

So much for journalistic effort, eh?

The editorial, titled “McCain serves up encouraging plan”, was an endorsement of Senator (and wanna-be President) John McCain’s plan for a fuel-tax “holiday” between Memorial Day and Labor Day. And, while that sounds reasonable at face value, let’s remember that Big Oil does nothing at face value.

What would actually happen should the federal fuel tax be given a vacation? Fritz, at Cyclelicio.us has a pretty good idea.

1. The 18.4 cent Federal gas tax is no longer charged.

2. The price at the pump drops, say, 15 cents per gallon.

3. People buy more gasoline because it’s cheaper! Hurray!

4. Uh oh, the supply of gasoline hasn’t actually gone up. The price at the pump creeps back up to $4 to regulate demand as gasoline follows the law of supply and demand.

5. Big Oil pockets the 18.4 cent difference and makes even more money because they don’t have this federal tax expense! Hurray for them and their stockholders! Hurray also for the foreign oil companies from whom the U.S. imports over half it oil.

Maybe it’s me, but I don’t see where any results passed #3 is any good for Americans.